Dynabladeknight
by BabyCharmander
Summary: While Kirby's off chasing Dynablade, two Helpers get the blame for stealing the crops. Will they be able to prove their innocence? Sequel to Spring Tornado, but still readable even if you haven't read that one.
1. Prologue

Hiya folks! Wooow, it's been a while since I've posted in this section, mur. Xx; For those of you who don't recognize me, I'm BabyCharmander. I've, erm, posted quite a few fics here in this section before, but not all of them have been the greatest. Eheh.

ANYWAY.

You guys remember _Spring Tornado_, right? If not, it might be a good idea to read that fic before you read this one, since it involves some of the same characters… though it's not _totally_ necessary. (If you _do _read _Spring Tornado_, though, keep in mind that I wrote that fic a long time ago. This fic will be quite a bit more well-written than that one, hopefully.) If you haven't guessed from the title, _Spring Tornado _is to Spring Breeze as _Dynabladeknight_ is to Dynablade. So, yeah. :D The adventures of Cutter the Sir Kibble and Dagger the Blade Knight continue once more!

Oh, and this fic, like the last one, will reference some enemies that some of you might be unfamiliar with, so be sure to keep a Kirby fansite in another tab or window so you can look up the enemy names. (I recommend Kirby's Rainbow Resort.)

By the way, I know it's after Christmas now, but this fic WAS finished around Halloween (or a little after then, anyway), but due to the fact that my college's internet blocks this website, I couldn't post this until now. Sorry!

Disclaimer: I do not own Kirby, Kirby Super Star, Dynablade, Sir Kibble, Blade Knight, or any of that fun stuff. Nintendo/Hal does, though. I do own Cutter, Dagger, and some of the other fan-characters in this story, sorta, so if you ever wanna use 'em, ask me first, mur'kay?

ON WITH THE FIC!

---~~~---

Multicolored leaves fluttered in the chilly wind, detaching from their wooden homes to drift about the world for a while before ultimately withering. The grass was beginning to darken and die as well. This wasn't such a bad thing, though, as now all of the fruits and vegetables were finally ripe enough to be plucked and put into storage for the winter months.

It was the time of harvest: autumn.

It was about half a year ago that Dagger had decided to "drop in" on Cutter. Ever since then, the Sir Kibble's life had never been the same. Things were a bit different; for example, he had to be careful not to spend nearly all of his money on food. Dagger ate like a Gip, and it was difficult to keep both himself and his long-tongued friend fed. As a result, he took up fishing and would occasionally visit Whispy Woods once or twice a month, as the tree was more than happy to give away a good supply of giant apples to his friends.

But having to be more frugal with food wasn't the only difference in Cutter's life. The 'Kibble also found that he had to teach the Blade' many things, as Dagger was, as everyone knew, rather slow. Dagger usually ended up getting himself into minor trouble every once in a while due to his sheer ignorance about some things, so Cutter made it a point to educate his friend. Progress had, so far, been rather slow.

Fortunately, Cutter's job hadn't changed any. King Dedede never found out about Cutter's helping Kirby, so he ended up keeping his job. Not wanting to get in trouble, though, the armored puffball would occasionally wander around Whispy Woods and claim to be looking for Kirby, and demonstrate what his "intentions" were by swinging his boomerang-blade around a bit. It was convincing enough, and Dedede didn't send any other notes to his employee other than his weekly paycheck.

Today, Cutter had used a good chunk of that paycheck to buy a rather large sack of candy and was currently attempting to shove it through the door without much success.

"Push _harder_, Dagger!" Cutter grunted, pulling on the tied-up end of the oversized bag of candy.

"I trying!" Dagger replied, working his feet faster as he tried his hardest to push the candy through the door.

"'I _am _trying,'" Cutter corrected.

The Blade Knight simply rolled his eyes at this, but suddenly perked up, pointing one finger into the air. "Igot _idea!_" he exclaimed, turning around and rushing off a distance.

"That's a first," the Sir Kibble muttered. "Just what _is _this rusty brilliant ide—"

Before he could finish his sentence, Dagger rammed all of his weight into the bag, sending both it and Cutter flying across the tiny 'Kibble house. Both the black puffball and the bag of candy crashed into the wall, the former falling first, causing the latter to crash on top of him.

"It work!" Dagger cheered, rushing up to his friend.

"Work_ed_. Past tense," came Cutter's muffled voice. He crawled out from underneath the massive bag just in time to get showered by saliva as Dagger made a "_PFFFT!_" noise in annoyance. "Well SCRAPMETAL Dag' you're going to have to learn to talk right _some_day!"

"Too hard. No wanna'." The Blade Knight crossed his arms and looked away, appearing irritated. This didn't last long, however, and he soon turned his attention to the bag of candy. "…Whatthat for?"

"Halloween, of course," Cutter said, opening the sack and examining the candy. "I didn't want to run out of candy this year and end up getting my house egged or TP'd." He paused. "Or a combination of both. I'm telling you, that was _not _a pleasant Hallow—"

"What Halloween?" Dagger questioned, tilting his head to one side.

"…What kind of childhood did you have?" The black puffball gave him a blank stare. "You really don't know?" Upon seeing his friend shake his head, he heaved a sigh and explained. "Well, on Halloween night, kids go door-to-door dressed up in costumes and say 'Trick or treat!' to get candy. If they get candy, they leave the house alone. If they don't, they generally egg the scrap out of the house before they leave."

It took a few moments for the gears to click into place, but eventually Dagger figured it out. "Oh. Soundlike fun!"

"It might, but I really _hate _this rusty holiday!" Cutter began to tie a rope around the opening of the bag once more as he rambled. "I have bad memories of bullies scaring the scrap out of me and stealing all my candy, back when I was a kid! After I'd go through all the trouble to hit all the houses on my street, those stupid guys would go after me with their creepy costumes and chase me down the road so I'd drop my candy and they'd take it! ARGH!" He stopped, suddenly realizing that he had tied the rope around his wrist. (This struck him as odd, though, because he didn't even know he _had _a wrist.) He gave a forceful tug and freed himself from the rope, but not without causing himself to fly backwards into Dagger, who didn't seem very fazed. "…So as you can see," he concluded, glancing upward at his friend, "I'm really not a fan of this holiday."

Dagger, however, apparently hadn't been paying attention. "Wanna' go!" he said with a grin. "Soundlike _fun!_"

"Oh come on, Dagger!" Cutter exclaimed, hopping up and pointing a finger at the Blade Knight. "Trick-or-treating is for kids! You're too old! I mean, you're… you're…" He slowly lowered his paw, blinking. "…How old _are _you anyway?"

"I… uh…" Dagger tilted his head upward in thought, rubbing his chin. His eyes narrowed as he tried to concentrate, and he soon began scratching the top of his head. Eventually his eyes shut tightly as he_ tried _to remember just how old he was, but suddenly he dropped his arms to his side and his eyes widened considerably, staring blankly ahead. Cutter was certain that he had heard a faint "_snap!_" which he assumed to be the sound of one of the Dreamlander's precious few brain cells exploding, and Dagger collapsed to the ground. "Ow."

"…Don't hurt yourself," Cutter said, wincing. "Okay, so maybe you _might _still be young enough to go trick-or-treating…"

"Reelee?!" the Blade Knight exclaimed, suddenly sitting upright with a bright smile on his face.

The Sir Kibble heaved a sigh. "…Fine."

"_YAAAAAAAY!_" Dagger hopped to his feet and gave Cutter a slobbery lick across the face as a "thank-you!" before proceeding to prance around the house.

Cutter just shook his head, wondering what in the name of Popstar he had just gotten himself into.


	2. Green Greens

Huh, no reviews yet? Mur well. If anyone's reading this, I hope you enjoy it! So long as you folks enjoy this story, I'm happy. :D

Well, on with the fic!

---

There are many ways to scare the "scrap" out of Cutter. Shoving a picture of a massive, violent bird into his face while he is on his laptop is one of them.

"…Isorry," Dagger said, looking up at the Sir Kibble, who had attached himself to the ceiling. He hopped onto the couch to help his friend off of the ceiling before setting him back down.

"N-never… d-do… that… _again,_" Cutter stammered, seeming rather flustered. He cringed again, though, when Dagger held up the picture once more. It was in a good-sized book, and there were other illustrations of the strange bird in the adjacent page. "What _is _that, anyway?'

"Wannabe this!" The Blade' pointed enthusiastically at the picture of the bird. "For Trickertreat! Wannabe this!"

"Wait a second, that's…" The Sir Kibble took the book, looking over the pictures. The one that had scared him so much was a massive illustration of a bird with a strange crest, a large jewel on its chest, and rainbow-colored wings whose pinion feathers gave the appearance of razors. It was depicted as flying forward, a murderous glare on its face. The adjacent page contained more illustrations of it, all from different time periods, with blurbs of text here and there. "This is Dynablade. What did you want to show me this for?"

"Halloween!" came Dagger's reply. "Wannabe this!"

"You want to be…" Cutter blinked, looking from Dagger to the picture of the surely-'Kibble-eating bird. "But… it's got such a complicated design…"

"It _pretty!_" the Dreamlander insisted, grinning.

"Er… I guess." The 'Kibble stared at the picture in the book, wincing. "Good thi—er, shame it's not real."

"_Buh!?_" Dagger exclaimed, rearing his head back in surprise, eyes wide. "It _not?_"

"Of course not," Cutter said. "Fablebreakers disproved that Dynablade legend forever ago, remember?"

The Blade Knight tilted his head to one side, trying to think back to that particular episode…

"…_So, you see, these images __**have **__to be picture-shopped! Not real at all," said a blue Mr. Frosty-style walrus with a mustache, beard, and glasses. _

"_And the recordings of those bird cries that were brought in were __**easily **__replicated by mixing angry Scarfy growls, Galbo roars, Birdon squawks, and the sound of a Maxim Tomato being run over by a Rex Wheelie, all played backwards!" a Waddle Dee, also with a mustache and glasses, chimed in._

"_Looks like this fable's been __**broken!**__"_

"_Join us next episode as we investigate the fable of the legendary Air Ride Vehicle Hydra. Can it really fly at over 100 MPH? And furthermore, can it __**explode**__ while doing so? Find out, next episode!"_

"No b'lieve… them!" Dagger mumbled, crossing his arms and pouting.

"Well, whatever," Cutter said with a shrug. "You're really sure you wanna be that… thing?"

"Yah!" The Blade' nodded his head enthusiastically, long tongue flopping around.

"Okay, okay!" The armored puff backed away, out of the range of his friend's flailing tongue. "But how in scrap are you gonna make a costume like that?"

There was a pause for a moment, and Dagger suddenly rushed off to a closet, dug around noisily for a moment, and returned, tongue retracted into his mouth, which was covered by a fake beak. The beak was attached by an elastic strap that wrapped around his head. "Like this!" he said proudly, tongue flopping out of his mouth and through the beak as he smiled.

Cutter had to cover his mouth in order to conceal his laughter. The Blade' looked absolutely _ridiculous _in that fake beak, especially with the way his tongue stuck through it. "W-well, okay…" he said, snickering. "You've got the beak part, but what about the wings? You at least have to have those."

Grinning, the knight pointed a finger up into the air triumphantly… and promptly dropped it to his side with a saddened look on his face. "Iunno."

"Aw, that's all right," the 'Kibble said, patting his friend on the shoulder. "We've got a few days before Halloween. I'm sure we can come up with something before then." _Yeah, maybe an entirely different costume…_ he thought, shutting his laptop and setting it carefully onto the couch. Once that was accomplished, he hopped off of the couch and smiled. "Hey, we were supposed to go on a picnic today. D'you still wanna go?"

Dagger immediately perked up. "Yah! Picnic!" The large Dreamlander zoomed into the kitchen, grabbing a picnic basket and starting to shove a bunch of food into it, as well as various other random objects.

"Woah! D-don't take too much, Dagger!" Cutter shouted. "We have to save some of it, remember?"

The Blade Knight gave a sad look and put away some of the food that was starting to overflow from the picnic basket. "This much?" he questioned.

"Maybe a bit less."

He put back some more food. "This much?"

"Nope, less." Cutter took the picnic basket from his friend and began to take out food, as well as some of the other random objects. "Sheesh, Dagger, what're we gonna need all this junk for?"

Dagger shrugged. "Iunno… Comein handy?"

"Well, I guess…" The Sir Kibble shrugged as well, leaving a couple items in and handing the basket back to his friend.

Opening the basket again, Dagger frowned when he saw only two sandwiches for their food. "Thisall..?" he whined.

"Well, if you want more food, we could always go to Whispy Woods and—"

"NUUUU!" the knight cried, gloved paws at either side of his face and eyes wide in horror. "Notapples 'GAIN!"

Cutter laughed. "I know, I know, I was just joking…" With that, he started to head to the door. "Hey, I have an idea. Let's stop by Ramble's farm and see if he can give us any freebies!" They visited the farmer from time-to-time and occasionally bought goods from him, so he knew them relatively well.

That brightened up the Blade Knight a bit. "Yah!" he exclaimed, rushing out the door. "Let'sgo!"

"Wait! You forgot to grab a jacket! It's gonna be _cold _outside!"

---

Meanwhile, a different duo stood by the outskirts of Whispy Woods. One of them was a Poppy Bro. Sr., who was currently wearing a rather old jacket and a typical Poppy Bro. hat, but with a patch on it. "Man, it's been getting so frickin' _cold…_" he said with a shiver.

"Yez, yez," replied the other. This one was a rather small, green Plasma Wisp who lacked gloves, exposing his electric paws that didn't appear to be a solid shape, though they gave the general appearance of bearing two fingers and a thumb. "But I can't feel zuh coldzzz…"

"Stupid Plasma Wisps and their non-flesh-y bodies…" the Poppy mumbled, pulling his jacket tight around his body. "Y'know, we'd probably still have a house and a heater if it weren't for you, Jolt."

"Why'zzzzit my fault?" Jolt asked, looking a bit sad. "I didn't do anything, zzzzz…" He looked down, rubbing his paws together nervously and accidently creating a bolt of electricity, which shot out at his friend.

"GEEZ!" The Dreamlander frantically dove out of the way. "I told you to be careful with your stupid electricity! You're like a walking—er—floating electrical fence! …Or something! And anyway, it's your fault because I had to spend what little money I had on feeding YOU instead of paying the rent!"

The Plasma Wisp hung his head (or, well, looked down, anyway) and dropped his paws dejectedly. "Z-zorry, Momma."

"And for the last time, _I AM NOT 'MOMMA'!_ You call me _Blast_, got it? BLAST! I don't care if I accidently hatched you when I tripped over your egg, I am _not _your momma, I'm _BLAST!_" He stood there, glaring at the Plasma Wisp, and twitched a few times.

"Zorry Momma—I mean, Blazt!" Jolt quickly corrected himself. "B-but… wouldn't we have a houze if you ztill worked?" He grinned nervously, despite lacking a visible mouth.

"You don't get it, do you?" Blast began to pace around in circles. "I was high-up in the ranks of King Dedede's lackeys, and what happened to me? I got beaten up by a _puffball! _A little _pink _puffball! You don't think I could actually go back to my boss after that, do you?! And my _co-workers! _Aw man, what would they say? I'd be the laughing stock of all of Popstar!"

"But it wuzn't _your _fault, Mo—Blazt!" the little ball of electricity squeaked. "D-didn't you zay before that zuh puffball had other people working for him, zzzzz?"

The Poppy stopped pacing, and his eyes narrowed. "Cutter…" The way the name was said was about as bitter as a bad licorice stick. "That two-faced tin can!" he exclaimed, turning back to face Jolt. "He sided with Kirby and screwed up _everything!_ If it weren't for him, I could've beaten Kirby and become the hero! But what happened? He dropped his retarded friend on top of me and made one of my best bombs blow up on me!"

"…Wait, how are you ztill alive after—"

"Man, if I could just get back at that guy, maybe I could show my face in Dedede's palace again…" Blast crossed his arms, looking at the ground, but suddenly perked up. "Hey, wait, that's it! I can prove that Cutter's a crook and capture him, and then I'll be a hero!"

"Zzzzzzhuh?" Jolt tilted his head to one side. "But wait, what if he'zzzz _not _really a crook?" He ducked, covering his head when Blast glared at him. "I-I meanzzz… other zan hizzzz helping Kirby?"

"Then we'll just have to makehim _look_ like one…" The Dreamlander gave a smirk, cracking his knuckles. "Heh heh heh…"

---

"_Brrrrr!!_" Dagger shivered, wrapping his arms around his body as he walked. "It _cold!_"

"I told you to wear a jacket," Cutter mumbled, crossing his paws. "And why did you wear that beak out here? You look ridiculous!"

The two were walking through Green Greens, which… wasn't quite looking so green anymore, what with it being autumn and all. Dagger was wearing the picnic basket around one of his arms and his fake-beak around his mouth, and Cutter wore a scarf around his body.

"Likeit… and noneed jacket," the Blade Knight stated with a "humph," turning his nose up into the air. However, he didn't manage to hold this pose for long. His eyes suddenly widened and twitched a few times. "Buh… buh… buuuuuuh—CHOO!!" he sneezed, falling backwards.

"You sure about that?" Cutter asked as he helped his friend back up. "Oh well, it's too late to go home now. Look, we're already here!"

The Blade' and the 'Kibble now stood a number of yards away from an enormous field, full of ripe fruits and veggies. It had pumpkins, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, squashes, apples, grapes, and a ton of other greens. Dagger's huge tongue was starting to salivate even more than usual at the sight of it, and Cutter had to grab the back of his shirt in order to keep him from charging into the field.

"It's not ours, Dagger! This is all Farmer Ramble's crop! It wouldn't be nice if we took from him," the 'Kibble reasoned.

"But I _huuuuungry!_" the Blade Knight whined. Looking over his shoulder, he gave his friend a pitiful look that would melt a stone heart. "…Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeese?"

"No," Cutter said bluntly, and Dagger promptly dropped the look and replaced it with an annoyed one. "I said that we could talk to Ramble and see if we could get him to spare us some food, but if we just took it without asking he'd never let us come back here!" With that, he started to walk down towards the barn at the other side of the field.

Dagger watched his friend go before turning towards the field again, grinning mischievously. He lifted his tongue and started to reach towards one of the pumpkins with it in an attempt to grab it and eat it, but Cutter grabbed the tongue and began dragging his friend behind him.

"Come _on!_" the black puffball said as he hauled the Blade Knight off, looking away just in time to miss the Dreamlander making a face at him. Upon reaching the barn, however, he let go of Dagger's tongue and allowed him to get up. "Hey, Ramble! Are you there?" A pause—no response. "Ramble, are you there?" he repeated, louder this time. Again, no response. "_RAMBLE!!_"

After a few moments, a Cappy emerged from a nearby greenhouse with a large sign labeled "TOP SECRET" stuck over the door. The Cappy lifted his mushroom-cap hat and smiled at the two visitors. "Oh, hello, boys!" he said, approaching the two Dreamlanders. He looked a bit older than the Cappies that normally wandered around Whispy Woods, and his voice proved that he was definitely older. "I _thought _I heard something out here…"

Cutter and Dagger exchanged glances before looking back at the Cappy. "What… inthere?" the Blade Knight questioned, pointing towards the greenhouse.

Ramble looked confused for a moment, but he followed Dagger's finger and saw that it was pointing at the greenhouse. "Oh!" he exclaimed, suddenly realizing what Dagger was asking about. "It's a secret! I'm afraid I can't tell you."

"Awww…"

"We're just stopping by," Cutter explained, glancing over at the field. "Wow, you sure have a lot of crops this year…"

"I dunno about mops, but I _do _have a lot of crops this year," the Cappy said with a proud smile. "Best crop I've ever had, if I do say so myself! Hey, if you want, I can give you a few snacks."

The Sir Kibble grinned. "Sure! That's very nice of you." He glanced at Dagger, who was rubbing his paws together and drooling a bit excessively.

Ramble noticed that, too, and laughed. "Hungry, are you? Well, I have a lot of extra apples this year, so maybe I could—"

"_NO!_" Cutter and Dagger yelled, looking horrified.

"Er… okay, then I'll go find something else," he said, seeming a little confused. He brightened up again, though. "I'll be right back!" With that, he let his mushroom cap fall over his face and headed into the barn.

"See? I told you he'd give us some freebies!" Cutter said with a smile.

"Yay!" Dagger cheered, hopping around happily. Soon, though, he stopped his jubilations and paused, looking up into the sky in confusion. "What that?"

"Huh?" His Sir Kibble friend looked up as well, but could see nothing other than a few clouds drifting around in the sky. "What is it? I don't see anything."

Before the Blade Knight could answer, he shivered as a cold wind began to pick up, wrapping his arms around himself again. "Someth'n bad…"

"What do you mean?" Cutter asked, unfazed by the cold as the ends of his scarf fluttered in the breeze. "It's just an autumn wind, that's all. We've been getting these all day."

But that "autumn wind" wasn't stopping, and soon it was growing in force. The trees were shuddering and shaking, dead leaves and twigs flying off of them. The wind grew louder and fiercer, and soon some of the fruits and vegetables were starting to get uprooted.

"Wh-wh-what's going on!?" Cutter stammered, eyes widening. He clung to Dagger, who clung to the ground as the wind whipped around him.

The Blade Knight said something, but the words were drowned out in a fierce _roar _of wind. Dagger, despite his weight, found himself pressed against the barn. Some of the crops in the field were ripped out of the ground by the sheer force of the wind, and splattered against the two Dreamlanders. A nearby tree was uprooted as well, and crashed through the "TOP SECRET" greenhouse, causing its contents to fly everywhere.

Cutter was too busy clinging to his friend in fear to notice, but Dagger saw. Ramble had been growing the extremely rare Maxim Tomatoes in that greenhouse, and those coveted fruits were either being blown away by the wind or splattered against the barn. Sticking out a gloved paw, he managed to snatch one that was flying by and quickly shoved it into his picnic basket, which he then held onto tightly in order to keep it from being blown away.

He almost dropped the basket, though, when he heard Cutter's scream, which had somehow managed to pierce through the roaring wind. Looking up, he saw _it._

The most enormous bird ever in the history of _everything _was apparently what was causing the great winds as it swooped down towards the field, talons out, and grabbed large amounts of the food. With its enormous size, the jewel on its chest, and its rainbow-colored wings, there was no doubt about it—this was indeed the legendary Dynablade.

Before the two Dreamlanders could say anything, the bird had taken as much as it could carry and was now flying off again to who knows where. The wind was now dying down, and soon Cutter and Dagger found themselves standing there among the ruined fruits and vegetables, staring at the sky in shock.

And Ramble opened the door to the barn, looking as though he had heard nothing, carrying a few food items with him. "So, I decided to get you some—" The Cappy froze, dropping the food and staring out at his empty field. He then looked at Cutter and Dagger, who were splattered with some of the fruits and vegetables that he had been growing. His shocked look was suddenly replaced with an enraged one.

"_You THIEVES!!_"


	3. The Forest's Edge

Still no reviews? D: Taht am VRY SAD. Ah well, don't feel obligated to review—I've finished writing this fic, so it's not like I'm going to stop posting chapters or anything. I hope that those of you that are reading are enjoying this, murhur!

Oh yeah, and since I forgot to mention this in earlier chapters, thanks to all the folks that beta'd this fic for me! I really appreciate it.

On with the fic!

---

Dagger found himself in one of those rare positions in which he was the one who had to be the brains, not Cutter. The 'Kibble was in such a state of mental shock that he apparently couldn't talk. …Well, he _could, _but what he was saying didn't appear to be in the Dreamlander language, or any language at all, for that matter.

"Um…" The Blade Knight grinned sheepishly, carefully nudging his friend out of the way. "Didn't… do it?"

"You stole my crops!" Farmer Ramble screamed as though he hadn't heard, which he probably hadn't. "You waited 'til I wasn't here and you _stole my crops! _I trusted you guys!"

"Didn't do it!" Dagger repeated, much louder this time. His voice squeaked a bit more than it normally did as he said this, probably out of fear. "R-reallydidn't!" He held up his paws and shook his head.

Ramble could hear him that time and approached him, looking him in the eye. "If you didn't do it, then who _did?_ Huh?"

"U-uh…" The Dreamlander went to rub his chin in thought, but felt the fake beak around his mouth. "Oh! Uh… Dye… Di… uh…"

"DYNABLADE!" Cutter blurted out, finally managing to say an actual word. "I-it was Dynablade y'gotta believe us Farmer Ramble it really wasn't us and we would NEVER steal from you and it was really Dynablade and he swooped from the sky creating this really big wind and stole a bunch of the food and flew away and sa;ljdf;dsalfjdsja—" He promptly went back to babbling senselessly.

"…Yah!" Dagger confirmed, nodding his head vigorously.

"_Dynablade?_" The Cappy looked at the two Dreamlanders as though they were idiots. "I ain't heard about that thing since I was a kid! You expect me to believe that?" He shook his head incredulously. "Besides, if that thing really _did _swoop down and steal m' crops, I woulda' heard it!"

Dagger looked at Ramble, eyes half-lidded in a sarcastic expression. "Buh-huuuuh…"

There was a silence, bar Cutter's incoherent stammering, before Ramble started screeching again. "_THIEVES! ROBBERS! I'LL HAVE YOU IN JAIL!_"

The Blade Knight, getting the idea that the farmer probably wasn't going to listen to him anymore, grabbed Cutter and started to run like mad through the field of ruined crops. Looking over his shoulder, he saw that the Cappy was, oddly enough, not running after them, but running into his house instead. The Blade' sighed in relief, but kept running, intent on getting back home. When he passed the field and got into the grass of the Green Greens, he thought he was off the hook…

…until the sound of police sirens reached his ears.

"Oh _nu!_" he blurted out, picking up the pace.

The sound of the sirens brought Cutter back to his senses, sort of. "Wh-what?! What's going on?! Where are we? What's with the sirens? Why are we covered in _food?!_"

"Shhhh!" Dagger looked over his shoulder again, spotting blue police Wheelies in the distance. "This… notguud!"

The oversized Dreamlander didn't notice the two creatures standing not far off from where he was running, and, as a result, he ended up plowing them over.

"_Eeeeeouch!_" Blast shouted, sitting up. "What the heck was that?"

"_WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHZZZZZZZZ!_" Jolt sobbed, rubbing his eyes. "That hurt, Momma!"

"I told you," the Poppy said, glancing briefly in the direction of Cutter and Dagger before turning back to the Plasma Wisp, "I'm _not—_" He cut himself off, doing a double-take. "Wait, that's…!" An enormous grin spread across his face, and he hopped to his feet before rushing after the 'Kibble and Blade Knight.

"W-wait for me, Momma, zzzzzz!" Jolt whimpered, flying off after his friend and darting under his hat.

Meanwhile, Cutter rode atop his friend's head, keeping an eye on the cops that were chasing them while Dagger ran. "Scrap, they're gaining on us!" He turned around, looking down into his friend's eyes. "L-listen, Dag'… I have a l-l-lot of things I want to do before I d-die, and getting myself thrown in jail is _n-n-not _one of them, so if you could, p-please, run just a little bit _FASTER?!_"

"Wooooah," came a voice from nearby. The two armored Dreamlanders turned their heads in surprise, shocked to see Blast running alongside them. "What's this about getting thrown into jail?"

"Ramble… think we… stealcrops," Dagger explained slowly.

The Poppy Bro. gasped. "You stole Farmer Ramble's crops?!" he exclaimed, wide-eyed. He looked up at his hat, whispering to Jolt, "This makes our job a _lot _easier." After that, he turned back to Cutter and Dagger. "Heheh, you guys are in trou~ble!"

"G-go away, Blast!" Cutter squeaked, waving his paw at the Poppy. "We d-didn't do _anything!_"

"Then why are you stuttering?" Blast inquired, raising an eyebrow.

"B-because I always s-s-stutter when I'm s-s-scared!"

"Scared of getting caught by the cops?" His grin grew wider.

"NO! Scared of D-D-D-D-D…" Cutter swallowed, holding his paws over his head in a defensive stance. "_Dynablade!_ He st-stole all of th-that food!"

"Oh." The Poppy Bro. Senior blinked. "Well, once this goes to court, I guess you could get off the hook on the count of insanity…"

"_WHAT?!_"

"You don't _really _expect us to believe that Dynablade stole that food, do you?" Blast snickered. "You can't worm your way out of everything, Cutter!"

"N-n-no… But Dagger can!" The Sir Kibble grinned. "Get 'im, Dagger!"

"Buh-huh!" Dagger lifted up his tongue, quickly whipping it around Blast, picking him up, and chucking him off into the distance.

"Nice work!" Cutter gave his friend a thumbs up, and Dagger looked over his shoulder, saluting. And, not looking where he was going once again, he ran promptly into a tree.

"…_Owwie_," the Blade Knight whimpered, sliding to the ground.

"_NO!_" Cutter hopped off of Dagger's head and shook the large Dreamlander's shoulders. "C'mon, get up, Dagger! _Get up!_"

"Stars… pretty…" A wavy smile extended past the Blade Knight's fake beak and his eyes appeared to be crossed, signifying that he was rather out of it.

Cutter then attempted to at least get Dagger to sit up, with little success. "Get up get up get up get up get up get up…" The sound of police sirens grew closer, and the Sir Kibble tried even harder to wake his friend up. "Get up get up, _pleeaaaase _get up!"

"Right here, Officer!" came an all-too-familiar voice. "The robbers are this way!"

Cutter cringed. _Blast… Dagger must've tossed him right to the police! Oh rusty scrapmetal, this is _not _good! _Seeing that the police Wheelies were almost there, and, not wanting to leave his friend behind, the Sir Kibble stood up straight and rigid, quivering as he waited for them to go into park.

It was only a few seconds later that a group of the Wheelies screeched to a halt around the duo, surrounding them. The Wheelies' armor was navy blue, and on the "nose" of the armor was a light that flashed from red to blue. Riding each Wheelie was a police officer, each of a different species.

Blast, followed by a still-sniffling Jolt, rushed out from behind one of the Wheelies. He wasn't looking all that great, which was to be expected for someone who had just gotten chucked a distance away and trampled. "_They're _the ones who stole all the crops!" he exclaimed, pointing dramatically at Cutter and Dagger. "Me and Jolt tried to stop 'em, but they just beat us up!"

"They did!" Jolt sobbed, rubbing some tears away from his face.

The sounds of the shouting and the sirens had attracted a crowd of curious Dreamlanders, who gathered around the scene. With so many eyes focused on him, Cutter began to feel extremely nervous and attempted to back away.

"Don't move!" came a very deep voice over a megaphone. The owner of the megaphone, a rather large Waddle Dee wearing a police cap, mirrored sunglasses, and a badge, hopped off of his Wheelie and strode over to Cutter, who just about passed out on the spot when he saw a gun strapped to the brown puffball's side. "You're under arrest for robbery and assault and battery!"

"C-c'mon!" Cutter stammered, holding his paws up in defense. "Y-you can't prove anything!"

The Sir Kibble's statement would have probably had a better impact had he and his friend not been covered in smashed fruits and vegetables.

Upon realizing this, the black puffball gave a nervous grin. "…I-It's not what it looks like, I _swear._" Hearing a noise behind him, he glanced behind him to see Dagger starting to get up and rub his head. "D-Dagger! We didn't take anything from Farmer Ramble, did we?"

The Blade Knight's eyes spun for a moment before he shook his head, finally regaining his senses. It took him a moment to process what his friend had said, but when he did, he gave a cheerful reply. "Buh-huh!" he said with a nod.

"Y-yep, see? Dagger agr—wait, _what?_" Cutter did a double-take, staring back at his friend again. He twitched slightly, glancing frantically from the Dreamlander to the police. "Y-you mean 'buh-uh,' right? Not 'buh-huh…'"

Dagger shook his head, reached into the picnic basket that still hung around his arm (and was still covered in smashed food), and pulled out the Maxim Tomato that he had taken from earlier.

The group of Dreamlanders collectively gasped and began to chatter amongst each other. The policemen exchanged glances before staring back at Cutter and Dagger. Blast, on the other hand, just smirked.

"Ooooh, the crimes just keep pilin' up, don't they?"

Noticing that what he had done seemed to have a rather… negative reaction, Dagger slowly put the Maxim Tomato back into the picnic basket and gently closed the lid. Once this was accomplished, he looked down at Cutter, whose normally black face was now looking a bit grey.

"D-Dagger?"

"Buh?"

"I want you to do two things for me."

"Buh'kay."

"One, run like there's no tomorrow…"

"Buh…huh?"

"Two, CAAALL MY LAWYEEERRR!"

"…What a la—" Dagger broke off into a fit of coughing. Cutter was no longer there, and had left behind a thick cloud of dust. Remembering the first thing he was supposed to do, the Blade Knight darted off, wiping at his eyes with his paw. "Wait, Cuh'er!"

"Not waiting!" Cutter yelled, feet moving so fast that they appeared to be a blur. "'Cuz if I wait then I'll get behind and Blast will catch up and the crowd will catch up and the police will catch up and they'll catch us and we'll go to jail and we'll never get out and we'll stay there 'til we rot and I DON'T WANNA DIIIIEEE!"

With a bit of effort, Dagger finally managed to catch up with his golden-armored friend and picked him up, setting him atop his head. "Weget 'way!"

The Sir Kibble didn't appear to be any more at ease. "I-I appreciate the thought, Dagger, but you seem to be forgetting that THEY'VE GOT RUSTY _WHEELIES!!_"

As if on cue, the sirens started to get louder as the Wheelies got closer. Blast was riding on one of them behind one of the police officers, Jolt clinging to one of the rubber handles.

The Poppy stood up in his seat, smirking. "Let me handle this, officers!" With that, he chucked a lit bomb at Cutter and Dagger.

All the two could do was stare at the bomb as they attempted to evade it, but to no avail. The bomb hit the ground right at Dagger's feet, and exploded… into a cloud of thick smoke.

"Hah, now they can't see to get awaaaa-AAAAAH HACK--!"

It seemed as though Blast had overlooked a flaw in his plan. Cutter and Dagger had indeed been blinded by the smoke, but the Wheelies were still driving, and, as a result, drove right into the smoke cloud. The wheel-like creatures began to swerve and screech in a panic as their drivers attempted to calm them down enough to drive out of the smoke cloud.

"Momma!" Jolt shrieked. "I can't ZEEE! I can't ZEE I can't ZEE, I can't—"

_ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZAP!_

By the time the crowd had caught up with the Wheelies, the smoke had cleared. In its place was a "shocked" pile of policemen and Wheelies, with a Poppy Brother Senior and a young Plasma Wisp thrown into the mix. Cutter and Dagger, however, were nowhere in sight.

"They must have gone ahead!"

"Catch them, catch them!"

"Hurry!"

It didn't take long for the policemen to resume chase, but this time they weren't actually chasing _anything, _for their targets were elsewhere.

"We safe…" Dagger heaved a sigh of relief, sliding down to a sitting position with his back against the trunk of a tree.

"For… for the time being," Cutter panted. "Lucky for us Blast's plan worked to our advantage." He shook his head. "We're still on the run from the police… and we can't run for forever! We're gonna die…"

The Blade Knight shook his head. "No not. Notdo… an'thin' wrong!" A smile extended past his fake beak.

"True…" The armored puffball dropped into a sitting position as well. "But they'll still think it's us, unless we pr—" He suddenly stood up, eyes wide. "That's it!"

Dagger blinked. "What it?"

"We'll prove that Dynablade's the real deal! Then they'll _have _to believe us!"

"Yay!" The tall Dreamlander clapped his hands in approval. "How… dothat?"

Cutter pointed a finger into the air dramatically. "That…!" He promptly sat down, dropping his paw and donning sad expression. "…I don't know."

Dagger frowned. "…We doit!" he said with a confirming nod. "Haveto!"

"Yup… guess we'll have to." The Sir Kibble stood up again, looking up at his friend. "Let's go?"

"Let's go!"


	4. The Meta Knights' Fortress

Still no reviews, eh? Hah, I wonder if anyone's reading this. XD Ah well, if no-one is now, that's all right, 'cuz there's still the possibility that someone might in the future, so I'll still keep posting. If someone's reading this now, I hope you enjoy! Next chapter's the last one.

Oh, by the way, there's a reference to an obscure movie in this chapter. If you can point it out, I'll give you a cookie. :P

---

A stream trickled and babbled along though the Green Greens, its chilly water splashing against some rocks that stuck up through the surface. Reflected in the water was the sun in the sky, a few clouds, and a filthy Sir Kibble and Blade Knight.

Cutter sighed as he gazed into his reflection. His armor was very messy, and he'd lost his scarf at some point during his and Dagger's run from the police. "It's no good… we can't go around looking like this. People'll recognize us and report us to the police for sure…"

Dagger looked down at his reflection as well, noting that he was still covered in smashed fruits and vegetables as well. "Wewash," he said, setting down his picnic basket and scooping up some of the water from the stream. He used it to clean his face and wash some of the food off of his shirt and fake beak.

"Yeah, but, um… I can't do that." Cutter kicked his foot at the ground nervously.

Blinking, Dagger tilted his head to one side. "Buh…?"

"My armor… isn't exactly stainless steel." Seeing that his friend still didn't understand, Cutter facepalmed. "It would rust if I tried to wash it."

"Yuu CHEAP!" the Blade Knight blurted, crossing his arms.

"I'm only cheap because _Dedede's_ cheap!" Cutter snapped, shooting a glare at his friend. "He doesn't pay me a whole lot, y'know!"

"Oh… Isorry," Dagger said, ducking his head down.

"…It's all right." The Sir Kibble's expression softened. "What're we going to do, though? How're we supposed to prove that Dynablade was the one who stole the crops, and not us?"

At that, the Blade Knight shrugged, but suddenly wrapped his arms around himself and shivered when the wind picked up. "It COLD!"

"Oh sheesh, Dag', it's not _that_ bad." That having been said, Cutter turned around, and immediately shuddered when the wind blew through his visor, chilling him. "SCRAPMETAL is it cold!" he exclaimed, snapping his visor shut. "Aw scrap, why'd I have to lose my scarf…?!"

"Iunno," Dagger said, glancing around. "Find warmplace…?"

"Yeah, that might be a good idea," the 'Kibble said, opening his visor again and shivering. "Once we get warm, we can plan our course of action... Let's see…" He glanced around, thinking. "We can't go home, 'cuz they'd be expecting us there…"

"There!" Dagger exclaimed, pointing out at a nearby cave. It seemed innocent enough, and as far as he could see there was nothing in it, so the Blade' began to make his way over to it.

"Um… y-you s-s-sure about that, Dagger?" Cutter asked, skittering after his friend. "It looks kindof… d-dark in there, and I don't really like caves…"

Reaching behind himself, Dagger grabbed Cutter and set him on his head. "Itbe 'kay," he said with a smile. With that, he walked into the cave.

…Only to be chased out by a wild Grizzo moments later.

The bear-like creature was foaming at the mouth, roaring ferociously as it chased the two Helpers around. Cutter was clinging to Dagger for dear life, while said Dreamlander was booking it to someplace _other _than the cave. Eventually he was back at the stream, which he took no notice of, and thus wound up splashing straight into it.

Seeing the duo splash into the water, the Grizzo snorted and stomped away.

"_BRRRRR!!_" Dagger crawled out of the stream, shivering as the freezing water dripped from his hair and clothes. "ItCOLD, Cuh'er!" he said, stomping his foot for emphasis. When his friend didn't respond, though, he looked around, confused. "…Cuh'er?"

The question was immediately answered by frantic gurgles that came from under the water. Rushing over to the stream and looking down into it, Dagger saw the two glowing eyes of a Sir Kibble staring back at him.

"…Oh." The Blade Knight reached into the stream with a shudder, grabbing Cutter by the paw and drawing him up out of the water. Still holding him up in the air, he gave a bright smile that extended past his fake beak. "Hi Cuh'er!" He cocked his head to one side. "…Whynot move?"

The 'Kibble twitched a few times before speaking. "BECAUSE. MY ARMOR. IS _RUSTED!_"

"…So… whatdo now?" Dagger cocked his head to the other side.

"F-f-first let's warm up, I'm f-freezing… th-then, let's find me a n-n-new suit of a-armor… Then… let's find s-something to EAT! I'm s-starving!"

Dagger froze for a moment, still holding Cutter up as whatever microscopic gears within his head began to click into place. Suddenly he pointed up into the air in triumph, accidentally flinging Cutter into the air. "Ihave _fuud!_" he exclaimed, and his friend clanged to the ground behind him.

"…Yes, I packed some sandwiches," came Cutter's muffled voice, as he was currently laying face-first on the ground. "But are they any good now?"

"Iunno." The Blade Knight opened up the picnic basket that was hanging off of his arm and pulled out two _very _soggy sandwiches. "Hereare!" he announced proudly, holding the sandwiches up… only for them to disintegrate in his hand.

"Are they edible?" Cutter asked. Suddenly realizing that his friend probably didn't know what that word meant and not wanting him to hurt himself from thinking too hard about it, he spoke up again. "Nevermind. Just pick me up, please?"

"Buh'kay," Dagger said, turning around and picking his friend up. "Um… Ihave this…" He reached into the picnic basket again, this time pulling out the Maxim Tomato he'd taken before.

"…I a-appreciate the thought, Dagger, b-but th-that should p-probably be s-saved for an e-emergency."

"Buh'kay… Find warmplace?"

"Y-yeah, let's d-do that first."

"Buh'kay."

With that, the two headed off to another part of Green Greens (or, rather, Dagger headed off, and carried Cutter with him). Shortly afterward they found a fire and quickly rushed over to it… only to rush _away _when they made the unfortunate discovery that it was actually the hair of a Burnin' Leo. They then came across what they thought to be another fire, only to find that it was a Plasma Wisp.

"S-since when is fire _green, _anyway?!"

"Iunno!"

---

While our Helper duo was running for their lives, another duo was elsewhere, heading to a nearby store. Said duo, as one might guess, was Blast and Jolt, who were currently away from the police for the moment. Blast was holding a small bag of gold in his gloved paw, looking it over.

"Wh-where are we goingzzzz, Momma?" Jolt asked, ducking as Blast swatted at him in annoyance.

"We're going to buy a few things that'll help us," Blast growled, glancing back at the money in his hand.

"But that'zzzz all our money!" Jolt yelped, rubbing his electric paws together nervously. Once again, this caused a bolt of electricity to shoot out of his paws, nearly striking Blast.

"AAAGHH!!" the Poppy Bro. screeched in annoyance, chucking a small bomb at the Plasma Wisp, who dodged. "THAT'S one of the reasons we need to buy some stuff!" He took a few seconds to cool down before he went on. "And anyway, we'll be fine... Once we get this stuff, we can capture Cutter and his stupid pal and turn them in to the police for the reward money!"

"If you zzzay zo, M—er, Blazt."

As Blast continued to lead the way to the store, the sound of whining met his ears. He ignored it for a while, but soon it started to grate on his nerves. He shot a glare at Jolt. "I hate your stupid whimpers!"

"Th-that wuzn't me…" Jolt said, blinking.

The Poppy, still looking over at the Plasma Wisp as he walked forward, was about to say something when he bumped into something, which nearly caused him to fall over. "AGH! What the--?!"

Suddenly he froze, staring at what he'd bumped into. His eyes widened, and slowly his lips curved into a malicious smile. "Things just keep getting better for us, Jolt…"

---

Meanwhile, Dagger had finally gotten himself and Cutter away from the enraged Plasma Wisp. Normally a chase like that would warm someone up, but the Blade Knight's clothes were soaked, so he was still freezing. He was also getting somewhat worn out from constantly running from things, and was panting heavily, his tongue now looking to be twice its normal length.

"Itired…" he panted, eyes half-lidded. Another chilly breeze blew by, causing him to shiver. "And I_cold!_" Immediately afterward, his stomach let loose a terrible growl. "AND I_HUNGRY!!_" With that, the Blade' threw himself to the ground.

"A-at least y-you c-c-can still m-move," Cutter stammered, shivering underneath his rusted armor. "C-c'mon, we have to t-try to find _s-something_ before we f-freeze to d-death!"

"Ino find… _nuthing!_" Dagger whined, hopping up and slowly plodding forward, eyes downcast. Not looking where he was going, he eventually wound up bumping into something, and looked up. "Buh?" Seeing what it was, his already huge eyes went wide.

"Wh-what is it, Dag'?" Cutter glanced around when his friend moved him, and startled. "Holy _scrapmetal!_"

Dagger had, quite literally, run into an enormous stone fortress. There were steps leading up to the front door, which was guarded by, interestingly enough, a Sir Kibble and Blade Knight, which gave the duo odd looks. (Or, the Sir Kibble did, anyway; the Blade Knight's face was hidden by his helmet.) Also by the door was a small radio playing some happy music, which… seemed rather out of place, given how serious the guards looked.

Cutter blinked, a little surprised to see a duo of the exact same species as him and Dagger standing there. Once he got over his surprise, though, he spoke up nervously. "U-um… c-can we enter, p-please…? W-we're f-freezing a-and h-hungry… a-and I need a new s-suit of armor, s-since this one's r-rusted…"

The two guards exchanged glances, and the Sir Kibble turned back to face the Helper duo. "We're guarding this fortress for a reason," he said coolly. "Besides, this _isn't _a hotel."

"Nor is it Halloween," the Blade Knight snorted in his deep voice. Cutter gave another start when he saw what he thought was the pink part of the Blade's helmet move, realizing that that was really a _tongue._

_Holy scrapmetal, they _do _all have long tongues!_ he thought to himself. _I thought it was just Dagger…_

That Blade', meanwhile, gave his helmeted counterpart a glare. "Buh. Nocare." Pointing at his fake beak, he continued, "_Like _it!"

"It looks ridiculous."

Dagger made a face in response, waving his gloved paws at the side of his face, dropping Cutter in the process, and sticking his tongue out (or… pointing it forward, anyway).

"I hate to interrupt this serious discussion," started the Sir Kibble guard, clearly annoyed, "But if that's all the business you have here, please take your leave."

"Y-yeah… c-c'mon Dagger, we don't want to c-cause trouble," came Cutter's muffled voice from the ground.

"…'Kay." With that, the Blade Knight retrieved his friend, shooting a glare at the guards before walking away from the fort.

As the two began to leave, though, the music coming from the radio abruptly stopped. The guards looked at the radio in confusion, turning up the volume just as an announcement started up:

"_Attention everyone! We interrupt this program for an important news bulletin: Two criminals are wandering about Green Greens! They are wanted for stealing a great number of crops from Dreamland's farms, as well as assaulting two innocent bystanders! Their physical descriptions are as follows: a Sir Kibble with red feet—may or may not be wearing a scarf and armor covered in food—and a tall Blade Knight with messy hair—may or may not be wearing a fake beak and clothing also covered in food. If you have any information regarding the aforementioned individuals, please contact the Green Greens police immediately!"_

If Cutter and Dagger had been cold before, the news bulletin they heard chilled them to the bone (or it would for Cutter, anyway, if he had any bones). The two guards exchanged glances before looking back at the Helper duo that was now _quite _eagerly taking their leave.

"_Hey, _get back here!" the Sir Kibble called, darting after the two Dreamlanders. His Blade Knight companion followed, unsheathing his sword.

"Run run _run!!_" Cutter yelped, Dagger readily obeying. The Blade Knight was fast, but unfortunately the two guards were faster, and eventually overtook him, tackling him to the ground and stirring up a dust cloud. Armor clattered, weapons clanged, but there would only be one winner, and when the dust cloud cleared… Dagger stood victorious!

"Iwin…" the Blade Knight panted, swaying around with a silly grin on his face before collapsing.

"Great job, Dagger!" Cutter cheered. Suddenly he perked up, getting an idea. "Hey! Take me and those two behind the bushes for a sec…"

Dagger obeyed, pulling Cutter and the two guards' unconscious bodies into some nearby bushes. Once there, he carefully helped Cutter out of his armor, and the 'Kibble immediately switched his armor with the guard-'Kibble's.

"Agh, this is a little big…" He shifted around in the new armor uncomfortably. "But at least it's not wet or rusted…" Glancing at his unconscious counterpart on the ground, he gave a wince. "Um… I-I'll give this back later, I promise!"

Seeing what his friend had done, Dagger cocked his head to one side. "Ichange too?"

"Yeah, you'd better… your clothes are still soaked, and it might be a good idea to use that guy's helmet."

The large Dreamlander nodded, taking off the other Blade's helmet.

Seeing one large eye (which now donned an "X" for a pupil) on the Blade's face, Cutter gave a slight yelp. "I didn't know they had _one eye!_ Um, y-yeah, Dagger, you'll _definitely _want to wear that helmet…!"

Dagger shrugged, not seeing what the big deal was, and put on the helmet. It was see-through, at least on the inside, so he could still see without anyone seeing his face. As well, it was pretty big on him, so it covered his fake beak. Once that was done with, he switched shirts, boots, and gloves with the unconscious Blade'. As an afterthought, he reached into his picnic basket and pulled out one of the miscellaneous objects he'd put in there earlier—a second fake beak—and stuck it on the Blade's mouth. "Hehehe! Now helook ri… riduh… ri…"

A faint _snap! _sounded.

"…Ow."

"Don't hurt yourself, Dagger. Anyway, um… now let's drag these guys out to the front of the fortress," Cutter said, grabbing the Sir Kibble and beginning to drag him. Dagger did the same with the Blade Knight. "With luck, the police'll think they're _us!_"

"Buh!" Dagger exclaimed. "But theynot _do_nuthin'!"

"Yeah, and neither did we… so when we prove that Dynablade's the real culprit here, they'll leave both us and these guys alone."

"…'Kay."

Once the two had dragged the unconscious guards over to the fortress, Cutter looked over them. "Uh oh, wait! This guy has grey feet… that announcement said I had red feet, didn't it? Scrap…"

Dagger looked over the unconscious 'Kibble, then grinned. "No wurry!" he said, reaching into his picnic basket and pulling out the Maxim Tomato again.

"GAH! Dagger, what're you doing?! We don't want to revive—"

Suddenly the Blade' tossed the tomato at the unconscious Sir Kibble's feet. The fruit splattered there, getting tomato juice over the puffball's feet and staining them red. "There!" he said proudly, nodding.

"…Ah," Cutter said, blinking. "Yeah, I guess that works... I guess we can go into the fortress now, too." He looked up at it, trying to judge how tall it was. "Looks pretty tall… Hey! I know! We can go up to the top and see if we can spot Dynablade flying around!"

"Buh'kay!" Dagger said, happily rushing into the fortress, Cutter skittering behind. When they opened the door and stepped in, though, they both jumped about a foot in the air as a furious voice echoed throughout the halls:

"TRIDENT, YOU ARE AS **DRUNK** AS A **SKUNK**!!"

"Whash a shkunk…?"

"…Good question."

The two Dreamlanders exchanged glances before poking their heads through a partially-opened door in the hallway to see what on earth was going on. In the room was a short table at which two strange-looking knights were seated, one looking considerably tipsier than the other. The sober one wore a horned helmet and a skull mask and had a giant axe at his side, whereas the intoxicated one wore a crescent moon symbol on his helmet, as well as a jetpack on his back, and had a large trident at his side. Standing at the foot of the table by a chalkboard was yet another knight, this one wearing a helmet with three points and goggles that looked like insect eyes, and having an enormous mace sitting nearby.

Cutter shuddered at the enormous weapons, and turned his attention to the chalkboard instead. Written on said chalkboard in big letters was an extremely cryptic message, possibly related to what the three knights had been discussing, which read:

"TOPP SEEKRIT PLANZ."

"Listen, Trident…" began the goggled knight in an exasperated manner, "I know you've had a rough week, but could you _please _try _not _to get totally smashed before our meetings?!"

"Shhhhurrr… _Hic!_" said the drunken knight, apparently named Trident.

"Anyway… You-know-who was telling me that we need more recruits for Operation Halberd."

"Oh, oh!" The knight with the skull helmet suddenly hopped up, waving his paw around. "I have a question, Mace!"

"Yes, Axe…?" Mace asked, rubbing his forehead and giving an "I know I'm gonna regret this" look. Axe was a genius when it came to math and mechanics, but when it came to everything else…

"I think our operation name is dumb. No-one's gonna know what 'Operation Halberd' means! It needs a better name, like… 'Operation Take Over Dr—'"

Mace lunged forward, covering Axe's mouth with his paw and glancing around nervously. Cutter and Dagger ducked out of the doorway just in time to escape his notice. "_Shhhh!_ The whole point of having an operation codename like that is to make sure _no-one else figures out what we're doing!_"

"…Ooooooooh! I get it."

"You'd better." Mace sighed, backing up over to the chalkboard again. "Anyway, as I was saying… You-know-who was telling me that we need more recruits for Operation Halberd. The problem is, though, we need to recruit people without the _other _You-know-who's noticing."

"_Hic! _Makesh shensh to me!" Trident slurred, swaying around on his chair.

"Why can't we just say their names, Mace?" Axe asked, crossing his paws. "It's a little confusing with all the 'you-know-who's…'"

"Because there might be spies around… Besides, you know who the first 'you-know-who' is."

"But how do _you _know that _I _know who the first 'you-know-who' is?"

"Because he's our boss!"

"But do you _know _that I know that you know that the first 'you-know-who' is our boss?"

"I… what?"

"See? That's what I meant! It's confusing!"

Mace stood there for a moment, twitching, before saying slowly, "It wouldn't _be _confusing if you would stop INTERRUPTING!"

"…Oh, okay."

"I shink—_hic!_—tha'sh a good idea…"

"No-one asked you, Trident."

Cutter was starting to get rather bored of this senseless conversation, and began to make his way down the hallway. "C'mon Dag', I don't think we'll learn anything from these guys…"

Dagger glanced over at his friend, then through the crack in the door again. "But Iwanna heer!" He giggled when Trident swayed to the point where he tipped his chair over. "Theyfunny!"

"Come _on_, Dagger!" Cutter grumbled, grabbing his friend by the tongue and starting to drag him off. "We don't want to get spotted by these guys… otherwise we might be in _big _trouble!" With that, he began to make his way up to the top floor of the fortress, heading up a few flights of stairs. Dagger started walking by himself partway through, Cutter letting go of his tongue.

When the duo finally made it up to the top floor of the castle, they immediately began looking through the windows. The top of the castle was above the trees, giving them a fairly clear view, but, unfortunately, no Dynablade.

"I don't see anything…" Cutter said with a groan, slumping down into a seated position. "Rusty scrapmetal, this is hopeless!"

Dagger hadn't given up yet, though, and was still looking through each of the windows he came across. "Luuk!" he exclaimed cheerfully, pointing out one of the windows.

Cutter, surprised, hopped up and rushed over to the window that his friend was looking at. "What is it, Dagger?" Upon looking out the window, he had a clear view of a mountain off in the distance. On top of it was a bird-shaped rock. "That's just a rock, Dagger…" he said with a sigh. He was about to walk away from the window…

…when the "rock" suddenly flew off the mountain.

The Sir Kibble startled. "D-did you see…?!" he blurted, glancing over at his Blade Knight companion, who returned the surprised glance. Without speaking, they immediately rushed back down the stairs to the first floor of the house, only to be stopped by a familiar knight.

"Woah, wait a sec," Mace said, crossing his arms and examining the two Helpers with a critical eye. He was dragging his weapon behind him, which, by some miracle, didn't damage the floor. "Was it _you _two that KO'd the Sir Kibble and Blade Knight outside the fortress?"

Dagger's eyes widened beneath his helmet, and Cutter felt as though he'd just been tackled by a Chilly. They'd been found out… and now they were going to be captured by these knights with _insane _weapons! Sure they could try to fight, but that mace had to be at least three times his size!

Throwing himself onto the floor, Cutter practically started sobbing. "I'M SORRYYY! WE DID IT! IT WAS ALL OUR FAULT! PLEASE HAVE MERCY!!"

Mace blinked, giving the 'Kibble a funny look. "…Okaaay, sheesh, I was just gonna thank you guys. We'd heard about those crooks earlier, and we turned them in to the police for some reward money. Thanks for leaving 'em outside, too. If the police came _into _the fort, we'd be in for it."

"Yuuwel'km!" Dagger said with a grin. He started to lick Mace, but Cutter stopped him.

"Eh…ehehheheh... Yeah, I-I knew that… I was j-just testing you," he said, inwardly _very _relieved.

"So, yeah… you guys want anything in return or something?" Mace asked. "We could probably give you some of the reward money we got if you want, or…"

Suddenly both Dagger and Cutter's stomachs roared, and the two Helpers blushed.

"…Or we could treat you to lunch, that might work," Mace said with a laugh. "It's all right, it won't hold up our meeting any." That happy look was soon replaced with an annoyed one, when he glanced back at the room he'd come out of. "Not like our meeting's really going anywhere… ugh. Anyway, follow me." With that, he began to lead the two into the meeting room where Axe and Trident were chowing down on a large amount of food.

Seeing the food, Dagger's saliva practically poured out from underneath his helmet, which he eagerly took off in order to eat. Doing this, however, revealed his fake beak, as well as the fact that he had two eyes.

"SCRAP! Wait Dagger, don't--!!"

It was too late—Axe had already caught a glimpse of the Blade Knight's face. "Hey, wait a second…" he said between bites of a watermelon. "What's with the fake beak? And didn't our Blade Knight guard have _one _eye…?"

Mace just stood there, stunned, slowly glancing back in the direction of the entrance where whom he believed to be the culprits had been sitting. "But then… that means…"

"Nice going, Dagger," Cutter growled beneath his breath.

"_THEY'RE_ THE CROOKS!" Axe blurted, spitting partially-chewed-up watermelon everywhere. He jumped up, rushed over to the phone, and picked it up, dialing the police. "Hello, police? There's been a mistake… the _real _crooks are inside the fortress here!"

"_WHAT?! _Axe, what are you _doing?!_" Mace exclaimed in a panic. "Don't lead them in here!" He rushed over to the chalkboard, quickly beginning to wipe off the "TOPP SEEKRIT PLANZ" that he'd written down before. "Quick, before they get here, someone grab those two thieves and take them _outside!_"

Trident blinked a few times, glancing around. "What two theevsh? _Hic!_"

The goggled knight spun around, only to find that Cutter and Dagger were already gone. "AAGH!!"

"Run, Dagger, _run!_" Cutter yelped, hopping up onto his friend's head as the Blade Knight ran as fast as he could through the fortress, out the other side. They came across a strange-looking switch, cleverly concealed in a very inconspicuous place: right in front of the back door. Not spotting this switch in time, Dagger tripped over it, setting it off, but quickly scrambled back up and ran away before he could see what it did.

It was a good thing he did, too, because mere seconds after he managed to get away from the fortress, it blew up in a brilliant explosion.

Mace coughed and hacked, eventually managing to push himself up out of the ruins that once were their fortress. He was grey all over from the explosion, and rubbed his goggles so he could properly see what had happened. After twitching a few times, he finally screeched out, "WHO THE _HECK_ INSTALLED THAT SELF DESTERUCT SWITCH?!"

Axe was the next one to make his way out of the rubble. "Well… Trident said it was a good idea." He glanced over at the third knight, who, still drunken, had taken no notice of the explosion.

"…Did Trident happen to be INTOXICATED at the time?!"

"…Maybe?" Axe gave a hopeful grin. "Um… at least the police won't find our top secret plans this way?"

With a groan of despair, the goggled knight threw himself down onto the ground. "I'm surrounded by _morons…!_" he sobbed.

"Awww, it's okay, Mace! We still love you!" Axe said, patting the knight on the back.

"Yesh, we do!" Trident babbled, moving to hug the knight but winding up falling over instead.

"I hate you guys."

Meanwhile, Cutter and Dagger once more found themselves on the run from the police. They could hear the alarms on the police-Wheelies far behind them, but those alarms were gradually getting louder.

"We're gonna DIIIIE we're gonna DIIIIE we're gonna DIIIE…" Cutter sobbed, snapping his helmet shut. "…Well actually, we're gonna get arrested… and THEN we're gonna DIIIE…

Dagger wasn't paying attention, though, instead looking for somewhere to hide. Suddenly, something shiny caught his attention, and he rushed over to investigate. There, lying in the grass, he found two rather large rainbow-colored feathers. "Buh!" he exclaimed excitedly, picking up the feathers and reaching into his picnic basket. There, he found the last item he'd packed: a few lengths of rope, which he used to tie the feathers around his arms. Now his costume was complete! "Look, Cuh'er! Ia _birdy!_"

Cutter did not look. "Th-that's nice, Dag', but don't you think we should be RUNNING RIGHT NOW?!"

"…Oyea." With that, Dagger took off running again, only to stop a few minutes later.

"N-n-now what?" Cutter opened his visor again, only to jump back when he saw a steep cliff that dropped off into a large expanse of water in front of him. "RUSTY SCRAPMETAL!" Hearing the sirens grow louder, he turned around, now able to spot the police off in the distance and getting closer every second. Cold sweat leaked from the Sir Kibble's armor as he trembled. "D-D-Dagger… wh-what are we gonna do…?!"

Dagger blinked a few moments, calmly looking out over the cliff, back at the rapidly-approaching police, at the feathers he'd tied to his arms, then out over the cliff again.

"We fly."

Cutter froze, not sure he'd heard that right. "We _what?!_"

But the Blade Knight didn't listen, instead spreading his makeshift wings, and jumping off the cliff.


	5. Mt Dynablade

Well, here's the last chapter. I have to leave super early Saturday night/Sunday morning, so I figured I'd post this now. Hope you enjoy!

On with the fic!

---

Wind rushed over the Green Greens, carrying with it the _very_ girly scream of a certain Sir Kibble.

"…Cuh-turrr..."

"_AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA—_what, are we dead yet?" The Sir Kibble opened his eyes to see nothing but blue skies and clouds around him, as well as a mountaintop off in the far distance. "Hey, this doesn't look like heaven… What's going--?" Suddenly he startled, looking down to see water far below him, looking back to see the cliffside they'd just left, and finally looking beneath to see Dagger with feathers tied to his arms, flying gracefully through the air. "…You can fly," he said flatly, twitching.

"Buh-huh!" Dagger said cheerfully, laughing as he did a loop-de-loop. Cutter fell off at first, but the Blade' caught him on his back.

"N-n-never do that again," Cutter whimpered, covering his mouth as he tried to hold in what little food he'd eaten that day. Once the nausea passed, he looked around, soon forgetting the fact that he'd almost been killed and becoming completely absorbed in the beautiful sights around him. "Wow… th-this is amazing, Dagger!"

"Yah!"

The 'Kibble had to sit back a bit, thoroughly amazed at the turn of events. "This is incredible…" he said quietly. "You Blade Knights are amazing! I mean… there's a _lot _I didn't know about you guys. First I find out you all have long tongues, then I find out some of you have only one eye, and _now _I find out that you guys can _fly!_"

There was a pause before Dagger glanced over his shoulder, blinking. "…We not."

"…Um." Cutter blinked a few times as well. "Then… how are those two feathers supporting both your and my weight?"

Suddenly Dagger froze in mid-air, and, after hovering there for a second or two, the duo began to plummet.

"I HAD TO QUESTION THE LAWS OF PHYSICS, _DIDN'T I?!_"

The two Helpers screamed in terror as they dropped through the air, rapidly approaching the water below them. As they listened to the roar of the wind around them, though, they noticed that it had begun to change direction. Soon afterward, they heard a strange bird cry pierce through the howling wind.

Through the sky flew an enormous bird, with feathers of all colors of the rainbow and a large jewel on its chest—the mighty Dynablade had once again shown itself. This time, though, instead of diving down to scoop up crops in its talons, it was diving down to catch the two Helpers on its back. Once it had accomplished this, it flew in a graceful arc, turning back to the way it came—towards the mountains. Soon it landed on a flat, grassy plateau, lowering itself so that Cutter and Dagger could get down.

Cutter and Dagger stumbled and hopped respectfully off of the great bird, the latter immediately turning around and gazing up at the creature in awe. "Buuuuh…" he gasped, eyes widening. The bird was truly a sight to behold with its beautiful feathers, enormous talons, and sharp beak… but despite all this, it actually looked rather friendly.

Dynablade leaned over, clucking happily as it nuzzled Dagger's side with its beak. The Blade' was a little surprised at this, but just giggled, playfully shoving the bird away. "Hi, Bladeburd!" he said, waving a feathered arm.

The bird just clucked again happily, but soon its expression became a lot more suspicious as it eyed Cutter. Ruffling its feathers and raising its wings slightly to appear even larger than it already was, Dynablade gave a warning caw.

It took a second for Dagger to realize what was going on, but eventually he figured out that Dynablade probably saw Cutter as a threat. Not wanting his friend to get hurt, he quickly darted between him and the bird. "No!" he exclaimed, waving his "wings" around. "Hefriend!"

Dynablade still wasn't entirely reassured, still eying the 'Kibble suspiciously. Said 'Kibble was stumbling around dizzily, face green and eyes spiraled, before he finally collapsed and decorated part of the plateau with the contents of his stomach. The bird reared its head back in surprise, while Dagger just cringed, opting _not _to turn around.

Cutter's action, however, reminded Dagger that he didn't have much in his stomach at the moment (and the 'Kibble didn't have _anything _in his stomach now), so he looked up at Dynablade again. "Um… Yuuhave fuud?" he asked, kicking his foot at the ground nervously.

At that question, the bird perked up and stepped aside, revealing… all of the crops it had stolen before, all in an enormous pile!

"BUH!" Dagger exclaimed, eyes nearly bugging out of his head when he saw all the delicious fruits and veggies. "Thankyuu!" With that, he charged over at the pile, happily gobbling up some of the food.

Meanwhile, Cutter groaned, sitting up and wiping his mouth. "I… I d-don't think that 'Kibble's gonna w-want his armor b-back, now…" he said, sounding somewhat dazed. He shook his head, glancing around. "What happened, anyw—" Suddenly he hopped up, glowing eyes widening at the sight of the mountain of food. "Holy _scrapmetal! _That's all the stolen crops! But… why hasn't Dynablade eaten it all himself…?" he wondered aloud, cautiously keeping an eye on Dynablade as he walked over to Dagger.

Said Blade Knight, after eating quite a bit of the delicious food, sat back and gave a contented sigh. "Yumm…" he said, licking his fake beak, but accidentally slapping his tongue against his face as a result. "…Ow."

Seeing that, Dynablade clucked in amusement, nuzzling Dagger again before walking off.

Cutter darted backwards away from the bird as it walked by, then looked over at Dagger, confused. "That's really weird… Why's he so affectionate towards you?"

"Iunno," Dagger said with a shrug. He looked back over at Dynablade, but did a double-take when he saw what it was standing next to. "BUH?!"

"Huh? What it is, D—WHAT THE?!"

Dynablade, it turned out, was standing next to a _huge_ nest, looking over two enormous eggs, one of which was beginning to crack open.

"He's a… _she!_"

"…_Momma _Bladeburd!"

"Well, that explains why she's hoarding food," Cutter said, rubbing the top of his helmet. "Must be for her chicks, when they hatch…" He looked over the nest, noticing shell fragments leading out of it and towards a path that lead down the mountain. "And _that _explains why she's so affectionate towards you, Dag'. Looks like she thinks you're one of her chicks."

Dagger gave his friend a sly grin. "My cawstoom… _guud,_" he said with a smirk that extended past his fake beak.

The 'Kibble just rolled his eyes at that, doubting that the quality of his friend's Halloween costume had anything to do with this. "There's also the possibility that Dynablade's just not very bright."

Immediately Dynablade whipped around, screeching at Cutter and flapping her wings angrily. Seeing the armored puffball yelp and dart behind Dagger, she nodded, as if to say, "Hmpf!" before turning back towards her nest.

The egg in said nest was getting more cracks by the second, before finally part of it busted open, revealing a little beak. That beak began to chip away more and more pieces of the shell before the egg finally shattered, revealing a large chick covered with fluffy yellow down.

"It_KYUUT!_" Dagger squealed, gazing at the chick with starry eyes.

"Y-yeah, I guess if you like birds…" Cutter mumbled as he poked his head out from behind his friend.

Dynablade, meanwhile, nuzzled her new child and reached over to the food pile, picking up some of the food in her beak and setting it down in front of the chick. The chick immediately began to gobble up the food greedily.

"Let'sgo see!" Dagger exclaimed, rushing up to the nest, Cutter following. He watched the newly-hatched chick eat, and cocked his head to one side. "…Bruth'r?" he asked.

Suddenly the chick looked up, shooting a glare at the Blade Knight.

"Oh. Sist'r?"

The chick gave a happy chirp before going back to eating. Meanwhile, the egg next to her began to crack open, and Dynablade watched it attentively.

"Well, it's nice that you're getting along well with your, erm… _family_, but…" Cutter pulled Dagger aside while Dynablade was distracted, and whispered to him. "We need to get out of here and show someone all of this so we can clear our names."

"But… wanna_stay!_" Dagger whined, drooping.

"I know… But you can come back here as much as you want after this, I promise! Just trust me, okay?"

"Buh'kay…" With that, he and Cutter began to make their way over to the path that lead down the mountain. When they did so, though, Dynablade squawked loudly and reached over, grabbing Dagger by the back of his blue shirt and setting him down in the nest. "HAY!"

"Oh no, I forgot…!" Cutter gasped, placing his paws at either side of his head. "That third chick's gone, and Dynablade thinks _Dagger's _her chick!" He began to pace worriedly, thinking. "Um… um… um… Oh!" Getting an idea, he looked up. "Hey Dynablade, what's that?" he asked, pointing off to something in the distance.

The bird blinked, giving a confused cluck as she looked over her shoulder. While she was distracted, Cutter rushed up to the nest, grabbing Dagger by the arm and quickly leading him away. By the time Dynablade turned to face the nest again, the two were already gone. She startled, looking from the two chicks in her nest to the direction she'd last seen Cutter in, and gave a worried cry.

Dagger, who was now partway down the mountain, looked over his shoulder upon hearing the caw. "Buhh…" he whimpered.

"It'll be okay, Dagger… We just need to get that third chick back. It probably needs its mother, anyway," Cutter explained.

"Buh'kay…" the Blade' whined, though he didn't sound too sure. He and Cutter made their way down the mountain, looking around.

"Those chicks are only hatchlings, so it couldn't have gotten far, I don't think," the 'Kibble said, glancing around. "We'd better hurry, though, 'cuz if something bad happens to it…" He gave a shudder. "I don't want to think about what'll happen."

"And you won't have to, 'cuz you can _see _what happened!"

The duo instantly spun around to find Blast and Jolt standing and hovering there. Jolt was now wearing goggles and what looked to be yellow rubber gloves, and Blast was struggling to hold… the third Dyna-chick!

"You've gotta be kidding me!" Cutter exclaimed. "What the scrap are you guys doing here?!"

"We heard a zzzcream," Jolt buzzed. "Zzzzince Momma—er… Blazt zzzzays that not even a girl could zzzcream zzzo high pitched, he figured it wazzzzz you."

Cutter's face turned red at that. "Oh. Eheh…"

Dagger, on the other hand, glared. "Whatyuu do?!" he growled, furious that they'd captured one of his "siblings."

"This little chick decided to run a little too far away from its nest, so it's ours, now!" Blast said with a snicker. "I don't know what kinda' bird this is, but we're gonna turn it over to some scientists, and _then _we're gonna turn _you _guys over to the police for some reward money! We're gonna be rich _and _famous!"

"You heartless…!" Cutter growled. "That chick needs to go back to its mother! Let it go!" Seeing the Poppy grinning maliciously back at him, though, he took a few fearful steps back. "Um… please?"

"Well, Cutter, why don't you _make me?_" Blast asked, reaching behind himself and producing a large bomb.

"Yuu _bad!_" Dagger spat, charging forward.

"_NO, DAG'!_"

Immediately Blast chucked the bomb at the two Helpers, causing it to explode at their feet. Somewhat fortunately for them, though, it wasn't a regular bomb, but a smoke bomb. "Get 'em, Jolt!"

"Yezz, Blazt!" With that, Jolt darted into the smoke cloud, able to see with the help of his new goggles. The cloud cleared, revealing the Plasma Wisp hovering proudly over the duo, which were now tied and gagged. Blast had also taken this opportunity to shove the Dyna-chick into a cramped cage.

"HAH! We did it! We're finally gonna get revenge on these two losers!" the Poppy cheered, holding up a gloved paw and hi-fiving Jolt. He wasn't zapped, however, due to the smaller Dreamlander's rubber gloves. "See, Jolt? I _told _you those things would be a good buy!"

"Yezzzz, I guezz zzzzo," Jolt buzzed. "Now whatzzzz?"

"You watch these guys while I go get the police," Blast said, turning around and starting to rush off.

Cutter gave a muffled whimper underneath his gag, looking frantically over at Dagger to see if the Blade Knight had any ideas (which wasn't likely). When he did, though, he was surprised to see his friend using that fake beak to saw at the gag, and eventually managed to slice through. _No wonder they don't make those fake beaks anymore…_ he thought to himself.

Mouth now free, Dagger lifted his head and screamed out, "MOMMA _BLAAAAAAAAAAADE-BURD!!"_

There was silence for a moment, before the wind started to pick up. Slowly it got more and more forceful, and Blast eventually had to stop and cling to the ground to keep from getting blown away. Jolt frantically rushed up to his friend, clinging to his arm to keep from being gone with the wind. Finally the wind stopped, and the two Dreamlanders heard a dull _thud_ behind them.

Blast stood up, blinking. "What, is that all you—" He turned around, finding one very angry Dynablade about two inches away from his face. "…got?" he finished in a squeak.

"…I think I would wet myzzzzelf if I had a bladder, zzzzzz…"

Before either of the villainous duo could do anything, Dynablade leaped into the air and snatched the two in her talons, and began to take off. Blast squirmed around frantically, unable to grab any of his bombs as both of his arms were pinned to his sides. "ZAP IT, JOLT!" he screamed. "_HURRY!_"

"I can't, zzzz…" Jolt whimpered as he hung from Dynablade's talon. She was carrying him by his paws. "Thezzze rubber glovezzz block my electrizzity… Guezz thozzze weren't zuch a good buy after all… Zorry, Momma."

By this time, Dynablade had carried the two high up over the water, and let them go.

"MY NAME IS BLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAST!!" the Poppy Bro. Sr. screamed as he and his Plasma Wisp companion plummeted into the water.

Meanwhile, back with Cutter and Dagger, Dagger had managed to free himself by sawing at the ropes with his beak. He freed Cutter as well, and quickly rushed over to the cage where the third Dyna-chick was held. "Yuu 'kay…?" he asked worriedly.

The chick just looked up at him fearfully, giving a few frightened chirps.

"Um… where's the key?" Cutter asked, looking around. "We need to get that bird out of there!"

"Iunno…" Dagger said with a whimper. "How getout?"

"I'm not s—" Feeling the wind pick up, Cutter's eyes widened. "WOAH! H-here comes Dynablade!" With that, he grabbed onto Dagger, who grabbed onto the heavy cage to keep from being blown away.

When the bird landed, she lifted her wing, pushing Cutter and Dagger away with one of her pinion feathers. That having been accomplished, she gazed down at the cage, and jerked her head forward, striking the cage with her beak and causing the door of the cage to break open. The chick, still a little nervous, poked its head out of the cage and looked up. Instantly recognizing his mother, though, he darted out, chirping happily.

"Hah! Guess we don't need the key, huh Dagger?" Cutter looked over at his friend, but was confused to see the Blade Knight drooping and gazing ahead forlornly. "Huh? Dagger, what's wrong…?" The 'Kibble followed his friend's gaze, finding Dynablade nuzzling her chick. "Oh… I see."

"…Notfair," Dagger mumbled, looking away and pouting.

"Well, Dagger, that _is _her real chick," Cutter said with a sigh. "Would you rather it be all by itself and have Dynablade still thinking that _you're_ her chick?"

"…Nuu, but… _like_ Momma Bladeburd…"

Before Cutter could say anything else, though, Dynablade turned toward Dagger and nuzzled him. The Blade' brightened up considerably, giggling and hugging her beak.

"Huh… guess she's grateful that you helped her," the 'Kibble observed. Suddenly realizing what the bird might do next, he looked away nervously, only to jump about a foot in the air when he saw the bird in his face. "Um, y'know, I should _probably _get going now…" Before he could leave, though, Dynablade nuzzled him as well. "Er… y-you're welcome."

With that, the bird straightened up, reaching her wing down to the ground. Her chick eagerly climbed up onto her back, and she looked down at the two Helpers, keeping her position, as though inviting them to ride on her back as well.

Dagger grinned, looking over at Cutter. "Let'sgo!" he exclaimed, grabbing his friend by the paw.

"W-wait! No, I didn't agree to this!" Cutter yelped as the larger Dreamlander dragged him onto the bird's back. "Wait! NO! WAIIIIIIT!" Too late, though—Dynablade took off for the top of the mountain again, making it up in only a minute or two. Once there, she let the two Helpers and the chick down, and lead the chick over to the nest.

"I _hate _flying…" Cutter whined, covering his mouth to keep from gagging again.

"We doit!" Dagger cheered, hopping up and down and flapping his arms about. "We savechick!"

"That's true…" the 'Kibble said, watching as the third chick joined its siblings for the first time and began to eat. "I guess we're heroes again, huh?" He smiled at that—as much as he hated going through stuff like this, it made him feel good to know that he'd helped someone.

The two Helpers sat back and watched the three chicks play around in the nest. After a while, Cutter spoke up again. "D'you suppose these guys have names?"

"Yah," Dagger answered with a nod. He pointed at each of the chicks as he stated their names: "Sist'r, Bruth'r, and… uh… Uth'r Bruth'r!"

"…Creative," the Sir Kibble muttered with a sweatdrop. He noticed Dynablade perking up and walking away for a moment, and sighed. "Somehow I don't think their mother's going to call them that, though."

The Blade Knight cocked his head to one side. "Whynot?"

"Well, beca—"

The puffball's sentence was cut off by a horrible _screech_, and both Helpers whirled around to find that Dynablade was under attack! They couldn't tell just what it was, though, since the bird's massive form was blocking their view.

"Momma _Blade_burd!" Dagger cried in horror, rushing up to the bird. When he got closer, he was able to see just what was attacking her, and screeched to a halt.

"What's wrong, Dagger?" Cutter asked, rushing up to his friend. "Who's—KIRBY?!"

"Huh?" The pink puffball, who was wearing an Indian-style feathered headdress and some face paint, looked over at the two Helpers. "Cutter? Dagger?! What are you doing h—WOAH!" He jumped back just in time to dodge a snap from Dynablade's beak.

"Momma! Momma Bladeburd!" Dagger yelped, rushing up to Dynablade and tugging on one of her legs. "Nofight! Hefriend!"

"Y-yeah, Dynablade… Kirby's a friend! I'm sure he didn't mean to hurt you…"

"Yeah, of course!" Kirby said, holding up his paws in defense. After a moment, he glanced over at Cutter, whispering, "…Why not?"

"Because Dynablade's not stealing the food for no reason!" Cutter whispered back, jabbing his thumb over at the chicks in the nest.

"Oh. …OH!" Kirby did a double-take when he saw the nest. "Wuh-oh, I didn't know she had kids! Uh… sorry, Mrs. Dynablade!" He looked at the massive bird and gave her a sheepish grin. The bird just dug her talons into the ground, giving an annoyed cluck.

"Shesteal fuud… forchicks!" Dagger said with a nod.

"Yeah, and we wound up at the wrong place at the wrong time, so… long story short, the police thinks _we _stole the crops," Cutter explained. "We've been on the run from them for a _long _rusty time… I'm exhausted."

"Well, I can get your name cleared for that one," Kirby said with a nod. "The police'll trust my word. As for Dynablade, though… she can't keep stealing food like this."

"Yeah…" The 'Kibble rubbed the top of his helmet. "Who on earth would give her a ridiculous amount of food for free, though?"

Suddenly the two Helpers perked up, and exchanged glances.

---

Whispy, not really able to get up and move around his forest in order to talk to other people, always appreciated company. So when he saw Cutter, Dagger, and Kirby approaching, he greeted them with a smile. "Hello!" he called. "How are you three today?"

"We're doing good, Whispy!" Kirby said with a smile.

"Yeah, and we were wondering… can we have some apples?" Cutter asked.

The tree nodded. "Of course! After how you helped me, I'd be happy to lend you all the apples you needed. My forest is full of them, especially in this season!"

The trio exchanged grins, and Dagger spoke up. "Webe… rightback!" With that, they rushed off, and returned with Dynablade's nest with the three chicks in it, all of them chirping hungrily. They then shoved the nest directly underneath Whispy's branches, nodding.

Whispy gave the nest a startled look, not really expecting this. Oh well, they _were _his friends, and he'd agreed to help them. "Well… all right, then." With that, he shook his branches, causing apples to come falling down into the nest. Before they even hit the floor, the birds snapped them up, swallowing them whole.

As he fed the chicks, the tree looked over at Cutter and Dagger again. "Would you two like some apples as well?"

"_NO._"

"…Just wondering."

"Tired of apples, huh?" Kirby asked with a snicker.

"You have no idea…" Cutter grumbled.

Suddenly the pink puffball perked up, getting another idea. "Oh! Whispy, when you get tired of that…"

---

It was finally Halloween night, and people in houses all across Dreamland were getting food, candy, and other treats ready to hand out to the trick-or-treaters. Farmer Ramble in particular was gathering together some candied fruits he'd prepared specially for this night, smiling to himself as he wondered what funny sort of costumes he would see this year.

No sooner had he picked up his bowl of treats did he hear a knock at the door. (Of course, the person at the door had been knocking for quite a while—he had just knocked loud enough for the Cappy farmer to hear.) "I'm coming," he said with a chuckle, heading over to the door and opening it.

Standing at the door was Dagger, wearing a fake beak over his mouth and two massive feathers on his arms, holding up a bag. "Trick-er-treet!" the Blade' said with a smile.

At his side were what appeared to be three other children of species that the old Cappy couldn't quite identify, all dressed up as identical birds. They looked up at him with their "fake" beaks wide open, chirping, "Tweet-tweet-tweet!"

Ramble laughed, placing a few candied fruits in Dagger's bag, and holding out some fruits for the other children, who eagerly scarfed them down. That accomplished, he turned back to look at the Blade Knight again. "Your costume looks nice, Dagger, but I must say, your friends' costumes are very convincing!"

Dagger just grinned.


End file.
